Letters from Home
by HangingLanterns
Summary: Lag and Niche find a strange out-of-this-world person lying in the sand on their way back to headquarters. Allen is a long, long way from home.
1. Discovery

As Allen trudged tiredly over the sand dunes of the barren desert, he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

_Left, right, left, right, left-_

Allen collapsed in the soft sand with a thud.

_Running non-stop for hours can really tire you out_, he noticed. _Guess I'm just lucky that I outran that giant centipede-looking thing. At least now, I can lie down for a bit. Just for a bit._

He sighed, lying face-down on the sandy ground. The sand was deliciously cool against his body, and he wondered hazily why the sky was still half-lit. It should've been day or night by now; and yet the sky was still stuck in a half bright stage that was either dawn or dusk. In fact, it had been like that for the past few hours.

_What a strange world_, Allen thought as he fell asleep.

.*.*.*.*.

Lag Seeing and his dingo, Niche, were happily walking home through the white desert Jose after a job well done. It hadn't been an easy job, tracking down the old man who seemed to change his name at every town he stopped at, but Lag had eventually located him. He handed the letter to one Peter Malony (though the letter was clearly addressed to 'Brian Hutchinson') and had hurriedly set off back to headquarters with his dingo. Aria, his section head, would be quite annoyed at how long he took to deliver that letter, but Lag was willing to listen to a lecture if only it meant that he would be able to take a short break and eat Sylvette's homecooked supper. But he would pass on the soup, Lag decided, gagging as he remembered the last time he had tasted it.

Niche was also walking along quite cheerfully, and playfully drawing lines in the sand by letting her hair drag behind her. Suddenly, she froze, and Lag, who was used to Niche's extraordinarily acute senses, stopped as well.

"Is it a Gaichuu, Niche?" he whispered.

Niche shook her head, which caused the large ratty creature on her head to wag as well. Niche made a sudden jump, propelling herself off the path and down the hill. At the bottom lay a figure, lying still and unmoving in the sand. Lag sprinted after Niche, and as he came closer he realized that the figure was a white-haired person wearing strange clothes. Niche prodded the man cautiously with her foot. He didn't move.

"Is he dead?" Lag asked, horrified. They both stared at the body, then Lag crouched down to check. If the person was dead, it was best to leave him here and move on, but if he was alive, there was no way Lag could leave him here in the desert.

Lag reached for the person's arm and pushed up the sleeve to check his pulse.

"Oh!"

The person's arm was blood red and deformed-looking. Lag dropped it in surprise. Niche bent down and sniffed at it.

"Doesn't smell like fresh blood," she muttered.

Lag decided to check the person's other arm, but his head was in the way. With some gentle pushing and shoving, Lag rolled the person onto his left side and freed his arm out from underneath his head. This arm was normal, and Lag felt a steady pulse in his wrist.

The person was probably just exhausted from walking through Jose, Lag thought. He decided to set up camp for the night, and wait to see if the mysterious traveller would wake up.

Lag carefully started a fire with some pieces of wood he and Niche scavenged, then sat back with a thump and a satisfied sigh. The fire blazed merrily and lit up the campsite with a rosy glow.

Niche rummaged in the bag for some food, handed some to Lag, then huddled near the fire while she stuffed the bread into her mouth.

They sat there for a while, chatting about mundane topics such as the letter they had just delivered, Niche's new battle techniques, the Letter Bee office and the weather, before both of them decided to curl up and sleep. Niche lay beside the fire with her blade-like hair spread out, and Steak the rat creature as a makeshift-pillow. The rat was so devoted to her that it didn't mind the sharpness of her hair digging into its fur. Lag, before curling up as well, pulled out a well-worn blanket from his letter bag, which he shook out and put over the unconscious person. It was pretty cold in the desert when you stopped moving, and it would be a pity if the man woke up with a nasty cold. Lag stretched sleepily, then snuggled down beside Niche and fell asleep as well.

.*.*.*.*.

Allen cracked open one eye and looked at the two children sleeping on the desert floor, beside the ashes of the campfire. They seemed like decent people, he decided, and Allen supposed they'd do some talking tomorrow. Maybe they'd know more about this strange country, and how to get back to where he wanted to be. Allen knew that this wasn't his world, since he had never in his life even heard stories of humongous bugs that ate humans and roamed around freely. The most likely answer was that, in using the ark, he had somehow managed to land himself in another world.

_Just my luck_, he thought. But as the two kids beside him had obviously no intention of waking up for hours, Allen decided to go back to sleep as well._ It can wait 'till morning. Everything looks better in the morning._

How wrong he was. How very, very wrong.

.*.*.*.*.

_A/N: Comments are really appreciated, especially advice. I will be continuing this story, but I have no idea how far I'll take it, and don't hold your breath for the update - I update very, very slowly ;)_


	2. Battle before Breakfast

Allen was used to waking up suddenly, at the first sign of danger. He had trained himself to sleep lightly so as to never be caught off guard. But as he jolted awake from the sharp sound of metal screeching across metal, Allen wondered for a brief second if he was still dreaming.

A gigantic, monstrous flea was towering over their little campsite. Easily as tall as a five storey building, its hazy shadow spread across the sand hills, sinking their little group in darkness. Faint sunlight (_if you could call it a sun_, Allen noted) shone on the insect's outer plates, highlighting the creature's outer shell.

_I'll need to get the kids out. _Allen thought as he jumped up. _But how? I can't activate my arm here… Only one choice left._

"RUN!" Allen grabbed Lag's hand, pulling him out from under his threadbare blanket. With the other arm, he scooped up Niche and practically threw her over his shoulder. He ran as fast as he could, cursing when his feet sunk in the soft sand.

"Huh? What's going-" Lag asked blearily, opening his eyes.

Chancing a glance over his shoulder, Allen found that the flea was shooting out what looked like long strands of rope, or possibly an extremely long and flexible tongue, straight towards them. He quickly dodged to the left, accidentally letting go of Lag's hand in the process.

Lag landed face first on the ground, and as he sat up, coughing out sand, Niche climbed over Allen's shoulder, and landed on her feet beside Lag.

Allen ran back to them, panting "We have to run! There's a giant flea chasing us!"

They turned around. The monstrous insect was almost upon them.

"Where's my gun?" Lag panicked, searching frantically in his holster. "I can take the gaichuu down," he explained to Allen, "but I need my shindan!"

"You mean your gun? It's still at the campsite. I doubt a gun can help us right now-" Allen shoved Lag to the left, just in time. Another of the gaichuu's prongs crashed into the ground where Lag was sitting only seconds before, leaving a crater the size of a watermelon.

Niche's hair whipped out, slicing the gaichuu's thread into several pieces. "Lag. Shoot bullet," she said, somewhat impatiently.

"I don't have my shindan!" Lag wailed as Niche once again used her hair to destroy the gaichuu's feelers.

"Is there any way you can shoot without it?" Allen asked hurriedly. The gaichuu was now in between them and their campsite, making it impossible to retrieve the gun.

"I can… I can try. I've done it once before." Lag took a deep breath and aimed his outstretched hand at the gaichuu. "Akabari!"

A glowing arrow shot out of his open hand, and struck the gaichuu's torso, '_pinging_' as it glanced off its shell.

"A little more to the right," Lag muttered to himself. "Akabari!" A larger heart bullet shot out, striking the gaichuu right in the crack of its shell armour.

The glowing trail of the bullet shone briefly, and then it was overwhelmed by the pulse of light generated by the gaichuu's death. Allen was temporarily blinded. He blinked, trying to get rid of the dark spots floating in his vision.

The light grew until it filled the whole area, and then it suddenly shrunk and separated into multiple groups. Each group then formed into hundreds of tiny stars which slowly faded away in the sky.

Allen looked up in wonder, marvelling at the sight. The very essence of the gaichuu seemed to have dissolved, leaving behind pieces of an empty shell that collapsed like a child's tower of blocks.

Beside him, Lag dropped to his knees. "Shooting without a gun is harder than I remembered." he panted. "I feel a bit lightheaded."

Niche crouched down, "Lag okay?" she asked.

"We should probably head to the nearest city. We're no match for the next one, with the condition you're in." Allen pointed out. Lag nodded, and then gestured to campsite. "We should get our stuff."

Niche and Allen packed the bags, and rescued the trampled-on blankets. Lag sat quietly off to the side, looking sicker by the minute. Once the bag were packed, Allen crouched down smiled over his shoulder at Lag. "Piggy back ride? You don't look fit to walk."

"Thanks." Lag gave a small smile as he climbed onto Allen's back. Niche carried the bag and Lag's letter bag with her hair. They started walking.

After awhile, Allen noticed that Lag's breathing had evened out. Allen saw, to his relief (since the boy seemed to be on the verge of throwing up on him), that Lag had fallen asleep. Steak also seemed to be sleeping on Niche's head.

The dusty travellers plodded on towards the faint group of buildings they could see on the horizon.

.*.*.*.*.

A/N: Thanks so much to all the people who reviewed! Your reviews encouraged me to write this chapter.

Next chapter: Allen, Lag and Niche reach the town. After some rest, they finally get around to introductions.


End file.
